Parents at Berlin preschool demand gay teacher be fired: ‘We don’t want him accompanying kids to the toilet’

A group of parents at a Berlin preschool have demanded that a male teacher be fired.

The protest, by  families at the kindergarten in the northern district of Reinickendorf received widespread coverage in the German media after “many Muslim parents” decided to remove their children from the nursery.

According to Tagesspiegel newspaper, the parents have raised concern about the teacher being in “physical contact” with their children – especially “when he takes them to the toilet”.

“For some of them, a gay man is automatically a paedophile,” the teacher in question told the newspaper.

In response, the educator has requested to be transferred to a new school.

Despite opting to back down, the nursery’s management have chosen to stand behind the gay teacher, despite the wishes of parents.

“They come from a different world,” the nursery’s managing director told GSN. “But we’re in Berlin, in the 21st century century, we can’t have something like this.”

Sandra Scheeres, the senator for education from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) ,added: “We don’t tolerate discrimination. We want to raise the number of male kindergarten teachers so that they become important role models for children. Again and again, parents treat male nursery teachers with suspicion.”